Essay:25 Worst Court Decisions

The vast majority of the "25 Worst Court Decisions" involved some deception, impropriety or inadequate scholarship, as discussed in the footnotes. (All decisions are by the U.S. Supreme Court except where noted; rulings overturned by the court system are not included.)

At least 5 out of these 25 worse decisions, or 20%, were urged by the ACLU,[1] as noted below.

↑The Court far exceeded the controversy before it in its ruling. President James Buchanan reportedly had sought this decision privately with the Court, and the decision was rendered two days after his inauguration.

↑The Court cited no precedential holding in its entire opinion. This was an ACLU case.

↑The case was based on a fraudulent claim that the woman was mentally retarded.

↑The Court invalidated the partial-birth abortion laws even though they had never been applied, contrary to its ruling in United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 745 (1987), that a facial challenge to a statute can succeed only if there are no circumstances in which the statute may be applied constitutionally. The Court did not even cite or distinguish the Salerno precedent.

↑Chief Justice Warren Burger, who later lamented hostility to religion, wrote the Lemon decision for the Court but admitted privately in a dinner conversation with Andrew Schlafly in late 1991 that Burger never intended for it to be applied in the broad manner that it was.

↑This case was a set-up whereby a false claim of a felony was reported to the police in order to compel an arrest in someone's apartment.

↑The Court issued a 5-4 unsigned (per curiam) decision without hearing argument on the merits of the case. This was an ACLU case.

↑Justice Abe Fortas wrote this opinion only weeks after he was rejected by the Senate for improprieties in his nomination to become Chief Justice,[1] and as a new scandal was lurking that led to Chief Justice Earl Warren telling him to resign. This opinion was released a mere 27 days after oral argument, which is much quicker than usual. This was an ACLU case.